Tuna fisheries and fishery in the Indian EEZ- An update

Abstract

The scenario of tuna fishery in the Indian EEZ in recent years show that
it is still limited to the small scale fishery sector with little inputs from the
industrial sector. The results obtained till date from the surveys carried out by
the Government of India vessels (FSl and CIFNET) in the EEZ beyond the traditional
fishing grounds, the industrial longline operations of foreign fleets in the
Indian EEZ and contiguous high seas, the rapid increasing rate of skipjack and
yellowfin tuna production in the traditional sectors of the neighbouring insular
states such as Maldives and Sri Lanka and the fast pace of growth, expansion
and production in the tuna purse seine fishery of foreign fleets of France, Spain,
Panama and Ivory Coast in the tropical Western Indian Ocean area - all these
have indicated tuna resource availability and rich tuna fishing grounds in our
EEZ and contiguous high seas.